


Fourth Age Frolics, Part One: The Mystery of the Missing Pastries

by KayleeArafinwiel



Series: Fourth Age Frolics [1]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 14:29:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2736029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayleeArafinwiel/pseuds/KayleeArafinwiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is the Fourth Age, and the grandchildren of King Elessar are making life...*interesting* for their parents and grandparents. Written for Advent 2014. OCs abound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Do You Want To Build A Snow Elf?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Susana Rosa (SusanaR)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SusanaR/gifts).



> Quick family tree:  
> Aragorn m. Arwen  
> 1\. Celebriel (daughter) m. Karim (Aragorn's foster-son)  
> \- Aravis (eldest granddaughter of Aragorn Elessar and Arwen)  
> \- Lasiel (six years younger than Aravis)  
> 2\. Eldarion (son and heir) m. Jalila (OC belonging to my friend Susana)  
> \- Valandil (three years older than Aravis)  
> 3\. Gilraen (daughter) m. Elboron (son of Faramir and Eowyn)  
> \- Barahir (five years younger than Lasiel)

“ _Nana!_   It’s snowing! Do you want to build a snow elf?” Lasiel shouted, racing into her parents’ room. Princess Celebriel sighed and wished that Karim hadn’t been away on King Elessar's business – he could manage their children much better than she, though she had two hands to his one. 

 

“Lasiel, _no dinen_ ,” she chided, “be silent and listen. There is not enough snow for a snow elf. Perhaps later. But  _Anor_ has not even put her head above the horizon. It is early for little girls to be chasing their  _nenith_ out of bed!”

 

Lasiel sighed, glaring at the balcony, where the grey light of false dawn was just beginning to show.

 

“Maybe  _Anor_ overslept, Nana,” Lasiel suggested. Celebriel shook her head ruefully.

 

 

“I think not, sweetling. She knows when it is time to get up, and Faniel will come and wake you when it nears time for breakfast.”


	2. Morning Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning continues - with a mystery to be solved. Are the young princesses up to the challenge?

When Celebriel entered the informal dining room to take breakfast with her family, she narrowly avoided a collision with her elder daughter. Aravis let out a shriek of indignation as Lasiel raced into her, tumbling both girls on their faces in the doorway. “ _Lasiel!_ You can’t  _do_ that,  _Naneth_ will be mad!” ****

 

“ _Naneth_ will be madder with you for standing in the way!”

 

“I was going to go find her!” Aravis protested, shoving Lasiel away. Lasiel fought back angrily, and Celebriel cleared her throat, making the tussling girls jump apart.

 

“Aravis, Lasiel, I am not mad, but I shall have to be very displeased if you do not tell me what this is all about,” Celebriel said, folding her arms.

 

“Faniel said there were pastries for breakfast, Naneth—“ Aravis was cut off by Lasiel.

 

“Little jam filled ones, Nana! The kind Daernana loves so much! And when we got in here, they were all gone! Just crumbs!”

 

Aravis’ displeasure was written across her face. “Someoneate them, and we shall have no breakfast!”

 

“It wasn’t me, Aravis!” Lasiel protested, and Celebriel stepped between them.

 

“Well, we have a mystery to solve, sweetlings.”

 

 

 _Who stole the pastries?_ Celebriel wondered.


	3. Pursuing Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunt for the pastry thief continues...

Celebriel and the girls found a trail of flaky crumbs, but it ended at the window. The balcony was far too high of a drop for any Man to risk. “The thief would have to be a bird!” Lasiel exclaimed in dismay.

 

“A fat bird,” Aravis argued, with a roll of her eyes. “There is no way  _Nana_  could have failed to hear if birds were pecking at our breakfast, they could not just fly off with it.”

 

The Princess laughed ruefully. “Yes, dear heart, you are right,” she agreed. “With the keen hearing your _Daernana_ gave me, I should have heard any thief. That is true enough.” She frowned, and her creased brow marred her fair face. “I do not believe a human thief, or a bird, could have left by the window at all. Let us continue to look.”

 

The dining room turned up no more signs of the pastries, but Aravis tripped on the chocolate-brown edge of the ornate Haradric carpet. She pushed herself to her feet, and her hand came away sticky with red. “Blood?” Lasiel gasped in horror. Aravis sniffed disdainfully, and licked the smear away. “Cherry preserves,” she said dryly. “And look, there is another smear on the wall outside.”

 

The girls exchanged glances, and picked up the trail, racing onward in pursuit of answers. They were determined to find the thief and make him – or her – pay for this crime. Celebriel followed sedately behind, smiling to herself.  _Cherry preserves, indeed!_ How  _obvious_ …

 


	4. Another Clue

The girls all but flew down the corridor, so swiftly did they race on in search of the pastry thief. They stopped in the family living room, where a stray sock, stained with red, lay under the table. Lasiel picked it up and sniffed. “Cherry preserves, and …other things.” She wrinkled her nose. The sock was not free of other stains, including what looked like chocolate. Lasiel’s eyes were fixed on the sock until Aravis snatched it.

 

“It’s not mine, or Naneth’s.”

 

Celebriel nodded. “Well, my loves, whose sock is this?” Her daughters exchanged glances, and shrugged.

 

“It’s too small for  _Abba_ , I  _think,”_ Lasiel said, but she wasn’t sure. “Huan can help us!”

 

_ Valar help me if Karim finds out we invited that naughty beast inside! But it really is too cold for him!  _ “Very well,” Celebriel said. “Not a word to your  _Abba.”_

 

“No,” the girls chorused.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Abba is Haradric (Arabic) for "father" and so I have the girls use it for Karim rather than Adar.


	5. I Never Said It Was Poison...

The hound pup was duly sent for and brought in. He raced toward them on gangly legs, chocolate-brown fur damp with snowmelt, and Celebriel sighed as he shook himself dry. “Quiet, Huan,” she said softly. “We are trying to catch our pastry thief. Will you help us?”

 

Huan barked, once, and sniffed the jam-stained sock he was offered. The girls were breathless with excitement as he ran on, and followed him out of Celebriel and Karim’s wing of the royal quarters. He skidded to a halt outside the Crown Prince’s rooms.

 

The door had been left open, and a black kitten with white paws wandered out, sniffing at Huan disdainfully. Huan barked again, frightening her so she jumped into Lasiel’s arms, and Eldarion came to see what all the fuss was about.

 

“Sister! Little ones! What are you doing about so early?”

 

“Our breakfast pastries were stolen, Uncle!” Lasiel said indignantly. “And maybe Lady did it!”

 

Lady set about washing her paws, and Eldarion barked a laugh at the imperious kitten. “Perhaps she did, hmm? But she’s too small to be dragging cherry pastries about.”

 

Aravis raised her eyebrows and shot Eldarion a suspicious look.

 

 

“Lasiel never said  _cherry_ pastries…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I Never Said It Was Poison" is the name of a trope on TVTropes, It means that while someone is trying to prove their innocence, they let slip revealing information that only someone who was intimately familiar with the crime for which they were being questioned (either the perpetrator or an accomplice) would know. This doesn't necessarily mean 'Dari ate the pastries, though...but he obviously knew something about them! :D


	6. Silver-hair and Desert Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter introduces Jalila as Eldarion's wife. She has a rather fractious relationship with her sister-in-law, and it shows...

“Nay, she did not, sweetling,” Eldarion said in reply to Aravis’ remark. “But my  _habibi_ told me there were cherry jam pastries planned for your meal.” As he spoke, the scent of lilies and desert roses wafted into the hallway, and Crown Princess Jalila stepped out of the door opposite her husband’s, crossing the hall and kissing his cheek. She smiled at the girls, as brown as she, and opened her arms to them.

 

“Good morning, girls. I trust all is well with you?” She looked at her sister-in-law questioningly, but her smile faded when she saw Huan panting at her, the sock dangling from his mouth. “Celebriel, my dear, I do hope you have been teaching the girls decorum. Running about the halls with that beast will not turn them into proper ladies. They  _are_ princesses,” she said loftily. Eldarion buried his face in his hands as Jalila went on about what a good son Valandil was, how prince-like, how well-behaved, and how  _he_ would  _never_ think of setting beasts loose in the halls. She let out a cry when Lady raced up her skirt, clinging with tiny claws, and batted at the small animal to get her down. “Wind God and Star Goddess!” she cried. “What is this, a palace or a menagerie? All these filthy animals!”

 

Celebriel fixed Jalila with a cool stare. “I suggest you resign yourself to these ‘filthy animals’,  _sister,_ if you wish to remain here. Belain willing, you will learn some common decency and not try to bait me into an argument!”  _How glad I am you no longer share quarters with my brother!_ The smear of red on Jalila’s lips had not passed Celebriel’s notice, and as she stared, Jalila hastily wiped the smear away.

 

 

“Did  _you_ do it, Aunt?” Lasiel demanded.


	7. Mystery Solved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the mystery - but not the Advent season - draws to a close! See you in Part Two!

“I did not,” Jalila responded with a cool stare for the younger of Celebriel’s daughters. “Eldarion and I had raspberry pastries this morn –  _not_ that it is any of your business. What right you have to be accusing your uncle and I of being  _thieves..._ You did not accuse your beast, I notice,” she said, nodding to the chocolate-brown pup, who whined anxiously. Aravis knelt and scratched between Huan’s ears.

 

Valandil came out of Jalila’s rooms. “Umma, Ada, is all well?” he asked, glancing from Jalila to Eldarion. “I thought I heard an argument.”

 

“Your cousins dare accuse me of thieving their pastries, light of my heart,” Jalila said, extremely vexed. “As though they did not know I prefer berries to cherries any day.”

 

Valandil smirked and picked up the kitten. “Whereas I,” he said loftily, “cannot  _stand_  raspberries and  _adore_ cherries. Isn’t that so, Lady?”

 

Lady purred, batting Valandil playfully with a white-socked paw.

 

“Did  _you_ take the pastries, Val?” Lasiel asked cautiously. She held her cousin in rather more awe than her aunt.

 

“And if I did?” Valandil asked, evincing an innocent air. “What will you do to the son of your Crown Prince?”

 

“Beat him with pillows,” Aravis snapped. “That was our _breakfast_ , Valandil!”

 

“I’m a growing boy,” Valandil said with a grin. “How about I get you into the kitchens to get some more?”

 

“All right,” Aravis conceded. “But we _haven’t_ let you off!”

 

Valandil nodded, and set off at a clip down the corridor with his cousins in pursuit – this wasn’t news to him!

 

Behind the children, Celebriel and Eldarion exchanged reminiscent glances. “Were we ever this much trouble for Ada and Nana?” Eldarion asked, once he had stopped choking back a laugh.

 

 

“You were worse, ‘Dari,” Celebriel said mildly, and set off after the children.


End file.
